The present invention relates to a vacuum cleaner, and more particularly, to a cyclone collector which can collect various contaminants, such as dust, by using the cyclone principle.
In general, the cyclone collector which is mostly used as a domestic vacuum cleaner only carries out dust collection by collecting contaminants contained in air by using a centrifugal force, and discharging the air outside of the cyclone collector. One example of the related art cyclone dust collector will be explained with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3.
The related art cyclone collector is provided with a cylindrical cyclone body 1 integrated to an underside thereof having a cone part 1a with a diameter becoming the smaller as it goes the more to downward, an air inlet 2 provided to an appropriate place of an upper portion of an outer circumference of the cyclone body 1 in a tangential direction horizontally, a cylindrical air outlet 3 on a top center of the cyclone body 1 for discharging the air drawn into the cyclone body upward, a dust outlet 4 on a bottom of the cone part 1a for discharging the contaminants (dust, string pieces, paper pieces and the like)drawn into the cyclone body 1 downward, a dust box 5 under the dust outlet 4 for collecting the contaminant discharge through the dust outlet 4. The dust box 5 is detachable from the dust outlet 4.
A process for collecting dust in the related art cyclone collector for a cleaner will be explained.
When a suction force is generated by an action of separate suction force generating means (not shown) in the vacuum cleaner, the air is drawn into the cyclone body 1 through the air inlet 2. In this instance, the air is drawn in a tangential direction to the cyclone body 1 horizontally. The air drawn into the cyclone body 1 together with the contaminant moves downward as the air continues to circulate along an inside circumference of the cyclone body. In this instance, the air and the contaminants have different centrifugal forces applied thereto due to difference of weight. That is, the air with a weight close to zero has almost no centrifugal force applied thereto, while the dust with a relatively heavy weight has a centrifugal force applied thereto, to circulate along an inside wall of the cyclone body. Accordingly, the contaminants comparatively heavier than the air continues to drop as the contaminants circulates along an inside circumference surface of the cone part 1a, and enters into the dust box 5 through the dust outlet under the bottom of the cone part 1a, and the air is discharged to outside of the cyclone body 1 through the air outlet 3. In a case when there is the dust collected in the dust box 5, the collected dust is removed after the dust box 5 is detached from the cyclone body.
However, the related art cyclone collector has the following problems.
First, the backward, not forward, air flow causes a great suction air resistance and noise. That is, the air drawn through the air inlet 2 is separated from the contaminants by the centrifugal force and discharged outside of the cyclone body, when the discharged air acts as a resistor to the air drawn through the air inlet, with a pressure loss caused, that drops a dust collecting efficiency and puts a more load on the motor.
Second, a suction force and a discharge force are almost the same as the air drawn into the cyclone body through the air inlet is discharged through the air outlet as it is. According to this, since a portion of fine dust is discharged to outside of the collector together with discharged air again, a dust collecting capability is dropped. Therefore, in a vacuum cleaner application of the dust collector, there has been no way but to provide an additional filter inside of the body of the vacuum cleaner.
Third, the dust box can not but be disposed right under the cone part of the cyclone body 1. Therefore, in the case of vacuum cleaner application, when it is intended to remove the contaminants collected in the dust box 5, only the dust box can not but be detached from the cyclone body, leaving the cyclone body as it is, which is difficult in using and managing the vacuum cleaner. Particularly, in a case of a canister type vacuum cleaner application of the cyclone collector, because the dust box 5 is disposed right under the cyclone body 1, the cyclone body 1 should be taken out of the vacuum cleaner body before the dust box 5 is separated from the cyclone body.
Fourth, the dust collector is tall, which leads an overall height of a canister type application or an upright type application high, that in turn leads the cleaner large sized.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a cyclone collector for a vacuum cleaner that substantially obviates one or more of the problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.
An object of the present invention is to provide a cyclone collector for a vacuum cleaner, which has a low pressure loss with a reduced air discharge force for preventing discharge of fine dust, and an improved dust collecting efficiency.
Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.
To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, the cyclone collector for a vacuum cleaner includes a cylindrical cyclone body, an air inlet connected in the middle of an outer circumference of the cyclone body in a tangential direction, dust outlets connected to both ends of the outer circumference of the cyclone body in a tangential direction, dust boxes in communication with the dust outlets for collecting dust coming through the dust outlets, and an air outlet tube for discharging the air flowing in the cyclone body with the air divided two or more than two.
In the other aspect of the present invention, there is provided a cyclone collector for a vacuum cleaner including a cylindrical cyclone body, an air inlet in one end of an outer circumference surface of the cyclone body for drawing air and contaminants into the cyclone body in a tangential direction, an air outlet tube on a center portion of the cyclone body having two inlets and one outlet for discharging the air separated by a centrifugal force from the air and contaminants drawn into the cyclone body, a dust outlet connected to the other end of the outer circumference surface of the cyclone body for discharging contaminants separated by the centrifugal force from the air and contaminants drawn into the cyclone body, and a dust box detachably coupled to the dust outlet for collecting the discharged dust.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.